Red banners with urgent tags immediately appeared on many Arab TV stations, as the region's major stations broke into regular programming to announce Zarqawi’s death.

Islamic extremist web sites also were quick to carry the news – and in their case, lament it.
A note posted on one web site – known as a clearinghouse for Al Qaeda in Iraq statements – lamented, "We hope this news is not true."

"If Sheik al-Zarqawi has died, he will go to heaven, God willing, and there will be 200 million al-Zarqawis after him," said another note posted on the same site.

Some state TV stations largely ignored the news. Government-run TV stations in Syria, Saudi Arabia and Yemen continued with regular programming even as al-Jazeera was flashing alerts.

Most newspapers in the region failed to carry the story, either in print or on their websites. The Jerusalem Post reported the news on its front page and website, but the Iranian Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) ignored the story.

News Timeline:

The first report of the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, was observed by BBC Moniing on the pan-Arab TV station al-Jazeera.

At 6:50 GMT al-Jazeera reported that Iraqi TV was quoting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as saying that Zarqawi had been killed. Iraqi TV added that "the Pentagon has not thus far confirmed the report."

At 7:02 GMT the Iraqi TV station al-Sharqiya announced that the prime minister would soon give a news conference of "paramount importance".

At 7:22 GMT the pan-Arab al-Arabiya TV carried a screen caption quoting its correspondent reporting: "Maliki announces the death of Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq."

As viewers waited for the news conference, details began to emerge on other Arabic TV stations.